South Coast · Nightlife

One village, two or three restaurants and a bar or two. That is the entire nightlife between Hvolsvöllur and Höfn, a stretch of about 270 kilometres.

September to April, from the beach at Vík or the church hill above the town. The sea stacks give you something in the frame besides sky.

Late June, around eleven at night, with the coaches gone and a rainbow still standing in the spray.

A concrete pool built into a hillside above Seljavellir in 1923, fed by a warm stream, free and unstaffed. It is cleaned only occasionally and nobody is watching you — swim accordingly, and carry your rubbish out.

Where the glacier and cave guides drink after work, which makes them the best source of tomorrow's weather and road opinion in the region. They shut early.